Abrams leads Texas to Big 12 final

Abrams led a second-half surge as the eighth-ranked Longhorns
cruised to a 77-49 victory over the Sooners in the Big 12
Conference semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

Top-seeded Texas (28-5) advances to the championship game on
Sunday for the fourth time in the last five years, facing the
winner of Saturday's other semifinal game between Kansas and
Texas A&M.

The Longhorns balanced a strong inside game with Abrams'
long-range accuracy to run away from the Sooners late in the
game, hitting 50 percent (27-of-54) of their shots from the
floor and outscoring the Sooners, 23-7, over the game's final 11
minutes.

"Coach (Rick Barnes) boosted my confidence a lot last night
after we talked about my influence on the the team," Abrams
said. "We knew we had to raise the bar, penetrate more, and
lock in on defense."

After Cade Davis' 3-pointer with 18:02 left in the second half
tied the game at 36-36 for Oklahoma, Abrams scored 11 of his 24
points on a 26-6 run that gave Texas a commanding lead midway
through the second half.

Abrams, who went 7-of-12 from the arc, knocked down a pair of
3-pointers to break the tie, starting an 11-0 run which left
Texas ahead, 47-36, with 14:13 to play.

"It feels real good right now, just finally knocking down some
shots," Abrams said. "My teammates did a good job of setting
screens for me and D.J. (Augustin) did a great job of
penetrating and kicking the ball tonight. Fortunately, I was
knocking in shots."

Augustin closed the run with a layup on his way to 17 points and
Damion James added 13 and pulled down nine rebounds for the
Longhorns.

"I thought D.J. was masterful today, the way he worked the
game," Barnes said. "He did an unbelievable job today knowing
he had to come out in some way and somehow get the pump primed
for A.J. He's gotten himself into a rhythm, and we don't want
to break his rhythm."

Oklahoma (22-11) was led by freshman Blake Griffin's 20 points
and 13 rebounds, while Tony Crocker added 11 points. The
Sooners shot 33 percent (20-of-61) from the field and 17 percent
(4-of-23) from the arc as Crocker shot just 1-of-7 from 3-point
range.

It was the team's worst 3-point shooting game in their Big 12
tournament history.

"I think it started just with us letting them play their game
and play the way they wanted to play," Griffin said of Texas
running away in the second half. "We didn't do a good job of
getting back on transition and slowing them down.

"When you do that, and they have a point guard like they do, and
shooters like they do, and big ones like they do, it can get
out of control fast."

The Sooners jumped out to a 13-6 lead early in the first half,
but they missed their next seven shots - going without a field
goal for almost six minutes. As a result they fell behind,
15-14, with 9:14 left in the half and trailed 36-29 at the
break.